Wednesday, June 14, 2017

Meet a Prospect: Matt Sauer

With the New York Yankees second round pick, 54th
overall, in the 2017 MLB First Year Players Draft the team took right-handed
pitcher Matt Sauer. Sauer was drafted out of Ernest Righetti High School in
Arizona, the same school that former Yankees and Mets player Robin Ventura
attended, which explains why the Yankees drafted Clarke Schmidt. All that slot
money is going to Sauer. Sauer is the stereotypical pitcher that the Yankees
have seemingly fallen in love with over the years, either that or they are
preparing for when MLB becomes a full contact sport like the NFL, standing at
6’4” and 200 lbs. with plenty of time and room to grow. Let’s meet the latest
pitcher for the Yankees that could also play center or power forward for the
New York Knicks in his off-time. This is Meet a Prospect: The Matt Sauer Edition.

Sauer is a right-handed pitcher and considered to be a
gifted athlete as he has also spent time playing shortstop, second base and
first base. As the Righetti Warriors’ top hitter Sauer finished his amateur
career with a .427 average this season to go along with his 0.98 ERA, four
complete games and two shutouts. Sauer struck out 142 batters in 2017 in just
78.1 innings while walking just 31. Sauer just started focusing solely on
baseball as a senior so he has plenty of room to grow developmentally, which
should be scary for opposing teams.

Sauer has a fastball that sits around 95 MPH with a sharp
slider and a changeup that he uses to keep batters off-balanced. Sauer doesn’t
throw his changeup often though so the Yankees will likely and presumably ask
him to work on that or scrap it entirely for a new third pitch, that’s just my
speculation though based off what we all saw with Luis Severino last season.

Santa Maria News has reported that the Yankees offered Sauer $2.5
million, which is more than double the slot recommendation for the 54th
overall pick at $1.23 million, to start his professional career. How they got
that information I am not entirely sure but if it’s accurate then they totally
deserve the credit. See Joel, how hard is giving credit where credit is due?

Sauer was committed to the University of Arizona but after
his drafting he said he would “likely” sign with the Yankees so stay tuned for
that. This may be a bit premature but I feel comfortable in welcoming Matt not
only to the team and the organization but to the family as well.